Etc...

ByCompiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn and Kristen Broman-WorthingtonNovember 4, 2003

Two weeks ago in Stillwater, Minn., Judge Howard Albertson officiated at the wedding of Don and Debbie Loida. That's nice, you say, but so what? Well, it took place in a bed and breakfast. But what really made it noteworthy is that it was the 4,999th of Albertson's career as a marrying man. (No. 5,000 is scheduled for later this month.). He has officiated aboard airplanes and motorcycles, at home plate in a baseball stadium, and while wearing a Civil War uniform. His advice for couples planning their nuptials: "If it goes over 20 minutes ... you've lost everybody."

Yes, that unusual passenger forced to fly commercial in Argentina last Friday was new President Nestor Kirchner. It was his own fault, too. Kirchner took office promising an anticorruption campaign. And whom has his dragnet caught so far? Among them are two of the only three Air Force pilots certified to fly the presidential jet. The third pilot was in the US, taking a training course.

Young, inexperienced, and often willing to take risks, students are the most accident-prone drivers in the US, according to a new study by Quality Planning Corp. The San Francisco firm, which advises auto insurers, compiled data on more than 1 million drivers in 40 occupations. It found students are 3.5 times more likely to be involved in collisions than the safest-rated group: farmers. Students also got the most speeding tickets. The fields whose drivers had the most and fewest mishaps: